police department if I’m wrong. Can I…can you give me an hour or two to follow up on it, Tony?'
'Shit, Margrit.' He stood and she followed suit, the two of them eyeing each other without pleasure. 'You’ll tell me if it pans out? We need anything we can get.' He pushed his hand through his hair and glanced toward the Legal Aid building. 'That’s why I’m even here. I’m supposed to be on Kaaiai all week and instead I’m pulling double duty because a couple of those names brought up red flags on our Janx file.'
'Oh, God, I forgot. When have you been sleeping?'
'Caught a nap at the station this morning. Grit, are you going to give me what you’ve got?' Tony turned his attention back to her, wary expectation in his gaze. A sizzle of guilt shot through Margrit as she recognized the same pattern of withholding information she’d displayed in January reemerging.
'If it turns out to be anything, I will, Tony, I swear. But believe me, you don’t want to shake the tree I’m thinking of if you don’t have an ironclad reason to. I don’t even want to put ideas in your head.'
'All right.' Tony nodded, as if he knew that Margrit wouldn’t offer up her thoughts until she was ready to. She caught his hand and held it a moment in apology, irrationally stung when he gently pulled away. 'You do your thing, Grit. Tell me if you can.'
'I will. I will, Tony, I promise.' The words had too much familiar deception. Margrit ducked her head again and hurried down the steps. When she looked back a moment later, Tony was gazing after her, unhappy resignation creasing his features.
CHAPTER 15
Margrit stopped in the coffee shop to tell Sam she’d be out for a while, promising she had her cell phone if anything came up. Then she took the subway across town, neither her shoes nor her time frame allowing her to bolt across the city on foot as she wanted to. Tony’s expression haunted her through the short journey. He deserved better, but she’d told the truth: if she was wrong about a connection between Russell and Daisani, it was better for Tony not to have that worm in his ear. He was a good cop, not likely to be led by unfounded suggestion, but once a pervasive idea took hold it could easily blind someone to things he should be seeing.
And if she was right…
Margrit left the subway still uncertain as to what to do if she was right. Miring Daisani in Russell’s murder investigation seemed absurd, even if the links were there. Tony, if he heard Margrit say that, would see it as truth falling before financial power, and she’d be hard-pressed to argue. She had no other way of explaining the reasons for her reluctance.
Alban’s image rose in her mind, blotting out Tony’s. Margrit made a frustrated noise and ducked into her mother’s building.
Rebecca Knight met her in the elevator lobby, alerted to her arrival by a phone call from the first floor. Surprise and worry etched unusually deep lines around her mouth.
'Margrit, what’s going on?' Her mom pulled her into a hug, then leaned back, gaze searching. 'Come on, sweetheart. Let’s go to my office.'
Margrit held on a moment, then nodded. 'That’d be good.'
They greeted a few people as Rebecca led her down a maze of broad hallways, before ushering her into an office that could have been deliberately designed as the opposite of Eliseo Daisani’s. Where Daisani used rich deep colors, she had pale ones: cream carpets and birchwood accessories with overtones of gold and orange were played up by sunlight diffused through blinds over the tall windows. The soft light youthened Rebecca and created an almost literal aura of competency about her when she was backlit. It was extraordinary advertising, giving the subtle impression that a client’s money was very nearly in the hands of God, and therefore unimpeachably safe. A tiny smile curved Margrit’s mouth. No wonder Rebecca intimidated people.
Her mother offered her a seat. Margrit took it, then stood again almost immediately, earning more concern. 'Margrit, what on earth is going on? Is it Russell?'
'Yes. Mom, I-' Margrit’s pulse accelerated as though she stood in front of a jury. 'Mom, I need to ask you a couple of questions and I need you to tell me the truth. I know we’re not…' She sat down again, rubbing the knuckles of one hand into the other palm. 'We argue over a lot of things,' she said. 'And I know you try to protect me and guide me even when I don’t tell you everything. Nobody tells each other everything.' Nervous energy drove her to her feet yet again. 'Right now I need you to.'
'Well.' Rebecca lifted her eyebrows slowly. 'In the beginning, there were the dinosaurs….'
Margrit laughed out loud, taken completely aback. Rebecca leaned into the couch, a hint of smugness sparkling in her eyes. Margrit came over to hug her, and Rebecca returned the hug, still radiating contained amusement. 'Sweetheart, I have absolutely no idea what’s wrong, but I don’t think I’ve seen you this nervous since you took the bar.'
'I know. I just don’t think this is something you’ll want to talk about. Mom, did you know Russell when he worked for GBI? Thirty years ago?'
Surprise tightened the skin around Rebecca’s eyes, and for a moment Margrit could see her drawing herself into a shell that hid natural feelings. Her heart skipped a beat as she recognized the defense mechanism: for the first time, it struck her as similar to what she did when courtroom nerves were starting to get the better of her. It was her game face, intended to be impenetrable. 'We’re more alike than I think, aren’t we?'
Fresh surprise softened Rebecca’s gaze again, a careful smile curving her lips. 'I’m afraid so, sweetheart.' She took a breath and held it a moment, then released it. 'I did.'
Margrit found herself echoing that breathing pattern, and coughed. 'And you never mentioned it because…?'
Rebecca gave her a shrewd look, her lips pursed. 'Wouldn’t it be more efficient to just ask what you want to know, Margrit?'
'I’m trying to be a good lawyer, Mom. Trying not to lead my witness.' Daisani’s chiding from the day before had left an impression deeper than she had realized. 'I’ve got a lot of puzzle pieces floating around and I’ve made a picture from them, but I want to hear your perspective to see if it’s the right one.'
'And is this under the lawyer-client confidentiality clause?' Rebecca’s light teasing carried an undercurrent of discomfort. She stood as if to shake it off, taking a few quick steps to her desk and then turning to lean against it. 'I never mentioned that I knew him because I didn’t particularly like him, and I didn’t want to prejudice you against your employer. Until you went to work for Legal Aid, Russell and I hadn’t spoken to each other in nearly thirty years. There was no reason to. We had nothing in common.'
'Except whatever it was that made Russell rich and makes Mr. Daisani say that you’re a remarkable woman,' Margrit said carefully.
Rebecca’s shoulders drew back. 'He said that?'
'The first time I met him. He said you were remarkable, and if you were a little less ethical, you’d have been rich beyond the dreams of avarice.' Rebecca exhaled and turned her head to the side. Margrit swallowed and went on, still choosing her words cautiously. 'Tony said there was some question about Russell leaving GBI back then. Some hint of insider trading, but nobody ever proved anything.'
'I thought you weren’t leading your witness, Margrit.'
'Mom,' Margrit said, very quietly.
Rebecca wet her lips and nodded, still looking away. 'I’m sorry. You’re right. This isn’t something I want to talk about.' She fell silent a moment or two, then lifted her chin and looked back at Margrit. 'Russell and I were both handling some of Eliseo’s smaller businesses, under the supervision of one of the full partners. It was a test, to see how well we worked on high-stakes, high-pressure operations. Eliseo oversaw a significant amount of what we did personally, partly to add to the pressure.'
'And partly…?'
'In retrospect, it seems clear it was also partly to see if we could be bought. During lunch one day he gave us papers detailing a sale going through on one of his information technology companies.' Rebecca lifted a hand to touch her hair, then let it fall again with a sigh. 'I don’t believe it actually occurred to me to act on the tip, but Russell went to bed still in debt from student loans and awakened a millionaire.'
'What’d you do?'
